The Ugly Side Of Health Related New Years Resolutions (Dealing With Gym Rats)

I’ve made a rookie mistake. What was the mistake? I let it be known verbally and on Facebook that I have made a New Years resolution to lose at least 50 pounds this year (see my post below)…

Although, it has only been two days since the mistake of publicly declaring my New Years resolution, the “motivating” experiences I have had since I made the declaration have made me glad I made the mistake of declaring my goal publicly.

Here are a few of the “motivating” experiences I’ve had, in no particular order…

First, there was the conversation with my super buff neighbor after my first workout (a 5 mile run) on January 1st. It was a brief exchange.

Me: “Hey (neighbor)”! I made it to the gym today.

Neighbor (chuckling): “Must be New Years.”

Me (inside my head): Game on B#$%^! Game on!

In my neighbors defense, we have a good enough friendship that teasing me about my resolution was inevitable.

This was followed by an exchange with another friend at church today (once again, this friend didn’t mean to “motivate” me. He was actually being very nice). He told me he saw my Facebook post and flashed me a grin that said, soooo how long will this resolution to lose 50 pounds last? He asked me how I planned to attack my weight loss goal and I told him I was going to do it by running like I always have. His reply? “Oh, you run? I didn’t know that.”

If you ever want to be “motivated” to get back into your running, just have someone tell you, a runner (in my case a 12 time marathoner with a 3:07 PR), that they didn’t know you run. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. Motivation acquired.

Finally, there has been the influx of memes on Instagram and Facebook from all of the regular going gym rats…

And just like that, the ugly side of health related New Years resolutions had made itself well known.

Look, I get it. The gym gets VERY crowded for the first few weeks of the year causing the regular gym goers to wait longer to get their typical workouts in. A lot of the incoming crowd doesn’t exactly know what they are doing with some, or all, of the gym equipment. Believe me, those of us in the incoming crowd know you are annoyed. We have seen the posts on Facebook about how you feel about us. We see you look at us from a distance and occasionally overhear the laughs from a snide joke made at our expense.

I know that every regular gym goer does not share the disdain of the “gym rats” for those of us that have made a News Years resolution to be healthier, but to those of you who are complaining about the influx of new members and making jokes at those of us that are just getting started, I have created a meme of my own…

I have a news flash for the “gym rats” out there. More than a few of us quit our New Years resolution to improve our health because we are tired of seeing people like the ones in the picture below day in and day out…

Seriously, many of the incoming New Years resolution gym goers go home after their first workout, crawl into their beds, and say to themselves over and over…

Seeing the “gym rats” take their selfies in-between sets and women fully made up so they can be hit on at 5am makes us question if we really want to follow through on our goal to be more fit. If we follow through, we run the risk, however small it is, of becoming one of you. We don’t want the picture below to be us in 2017.

To all of my many regular gym going friends, I apologize for the overt messaging in this post. I know you will be gracious and lend an helping hand to many of newcomers you meet tomorrow.

To all of the “gym rats”, I would like to echo the words of a fellow food addict about how he feels when he sees you at the gym…

I’ll see you all tomorrow, in February, in March, in April… You get the idea. 🙂

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